PFINGSTEN: Vista minister's Christmas cantata ready for the public ear

On the afternoon of Dec. 18, the 40 singers who make up the
Vista United Methodist
Church
choir will stand and sing a half-hour piece of Christmas
music written by the congregation's own music minister,
Frank Hallock
.

Hallock admitted that he is excited, but also nervous, about the
first public performance of his cantata, "Come, Emmanuel."

"I am very new to the compositional world ---- I've been
directing church choirs for more than 40 years, but I was not a
composition major or anything like that," said the 62-year-old
grandfather, who moved to Vista in 1997 to take the job as the
church's music leader.

"In recent years, I've toyed with doing some arrangements, and
last year, I wrote a short piece for the choir that was very
well-received," he said. "That gave me the confidence to try
something (longer). I've written poetry all of my life, so some of
the lyrics are original, and others are paraphrases or adaptations
of scripture."

As a young man, Hallock majored in choral conducting at San
Diego State University, having taken up singing as a teenager.

"I walked into choir rehearsal, and I remember walking out and
saying to my friend, 'That's what I want to do for a living,'" he
said.

When we spoke on Monday afternoon, Hallock had just put the
finishing touches on a piece of orchestration, and he said that he
has had the church choir rehearsing twice a week, two hours at a
time, for the upcoming performance.

"I think I began sketching most of this in early October, so
it's been a very short time," he said, adding with the appropriate
humility: "I had the joy of a couple of rather high compliments for
the piece last year ---- and that encouraged me ---- but I don't
pretend I'm going to set the world on fire."

The one and only performance of "Come, Emmanuel" ---- at least
until it sets the world on fire ---- is scheduled for 4 p.m. Dec.
18. It is free and open to the public, and the Vista United
Methodist Church is at 490 S. Melrose Drive.

Math fellow:
After winning a prestigious
mathematics fellowship from the San Diego chapter of Math for
America, lifelong Valley Center resident
Kathleen
Barry
will teach algebra and the like to underprivileged
high school students somewhere in San Diego County by 2013.

After finishing at Columbia University with a squeaky-clean
grade-point average and an impressive record on the school's
women's basketball team, Barry is now studying at UC San Diego on a
full scholarship from
Math for America
.

She is one of six fellows selected by the nonprofit for the
five-year program, which provides a $15,000 annual stipend through
two years of school and three years of teaching, executive director
Barbara Edwards
said.

"We look for a set of qualities that Kathleen really
exemplified," Edwards said.

After Barry applied to the program, Edwards said Barry was
forced, yet again, to show her work: "In the interview process, we
have them do math problems and explain why they're doing what
they're doing. It's quite rigorous."

In 2013, Math for America will help Barry land in a San Diego
County classroom, ideally in an underprivileged school district. As
a second-generation teacher, Barry will be expected to help
low-income high school students beat the odds.

"Algebra 1, specifically, is a gatekeeper of sorts," Edwards
said, explaining why math is so important. "If you don't pass that
... then you're up against the possibility that you won't go to
college.

"We talk to business leaders as well, and math is also part of
the fabric of what they want in their workforce ---- not in the
formulaic way, but ... in being able to solve puzzles," Edwards
said.